Church Law on the Ordination of Indians and Castas in New Spain

ONE of the most pressing questions that faced the Roman Catholic Church in colonial Mexico was that of a native clergy. In an effort to resolve it, both Church and state groped toward a policy that would reconcile the conflicting demands of Christian idealism and social reality. Eventually an accommodation was reached, but the process that led to it was remarkably complex. The confusion and difficulties that surrounded the issue can be seen most clearly in the history of the legislation of the bishops of New Spain regarding the ordination to the priesthood of Indians and castas (mixedbloods), specifically mestizos. Johann Specker has distinguished three stages in the Church's approach to the ordination of non-Europeans in Spanish America.1 The first stage, roughly from 1524 to 1555, was one of idealism and was characterized by the first moves toward an Indian clergy. It ended in failure. This stage included the famous Franciscan college at Tlatelolco and is the one that has been most studied. The second stage was that of formal exclusion, specifically as found in the legislation of the Mexican Church Councils of 1555 and 1585. The third stage, which began toward the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, was the period of practical accommodation, when in some way or another Indians and persons of mixed ancestry began to enter the ranks of the clergy.2